U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his NATO counterparts meet in Turkey to prepare a pivotal summit of alliance leaders next month that will set the course for future European security as America focuses on challenges elsewhere.

Delegations from Ukraine and Russia traveled to Turkey Thursday for peace talks, but while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was present, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin stayed away, prompting criticism from Western officials that the Kremlin isn’t serious about the efforts to end the war.